Field of the Invention
One disclosed aspect of the embodiments relates to a technology for reducing a consumed amount of a developing agent in an image forming apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
In an image forming apparatus, reduction of a consumed amount of toner being a developing agent has been demanded. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-299239 discloses a configuration which reduces the exposure intensity for an image having some area to reduce the consumed amount of toner. In an image forming apparatus, a phenomenon called “sweep-up” may occur which is an increased amount of toner adhered to an edge region on a rear end side in a rotational direction of a photosensitive member of an electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive member. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-272153 discloses a configuration which suppresses an influence caused by sweep-up. More specifically, a correction region is determined based on a data value of a pixel of interest and data values of pixels positioned on a downstream side by a predetermined amount in a sub scanning direction with respect to the pixel of interest. A pixel positioned on an upstream side by a predetermined amount in the sub scanning direction of the pixel in the correction region is further defined as a correction region and the exposure amount in the pixel in the correction region is adjusted to suppress an influence caused by the sweep-up. Such suppression of the influence of the sweep-up can reduce the consumed amount of toner. Additionally, in an image forming apparatus, a phenomenon called an “edge effect” may occur which is an increased amount of toner adhered to an edge region of an electrostatic latent image formed on a photosensitive member.
Because the strength of such sweep-up and edge effects at an edge may vary in accordance with another image in vicinity of the edge, the image quality may be deteriorated even with the configurations disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2004-299239 and 2007-272153.
One disclosed aspect of the embodiments provides an image forming apparatus and an image processing apparatus, which can reduce the consumed amount of a developing agent while preventing reduction of image quality.